1-Cruz, Trump split four states in setback for Republican establishment

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - Republican presidential
hopeful Ted Cruz split victories in four nominating contests
with front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday, bolstering Cruz's
argument that he represents the party's best chance to stop the
brash New York billionaire.

The results were a repudiation of a Republican establishment
that has bristled at the prospect of either Cruz or Trump
winning the party's nomination and has largely lined up behind
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who was shut out in all
four contests.

"I think it's time that he dropped out of the race," Trump
said of Rubio after the contests. "I want Ted one on one."

Cruz won Kansas and Maine on Saturday, while Trump won the
bigger states of Louisiana and Kentucky, holding onto his lead
in the race for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8
presidential election, even though Cruz captured more delegates
on Saturday.

The next big contest, and a crucial one, will be Tuesday's
primary in the industrial state of Michigan. Republicans in
three other states, Mississippi, Idaho and Hawaii, also will
vote on Tuesday. Puerto Rico Republicans will vote on Sunday.

In the Democratic race, front-runner Hillary Clinton won in
Louisiana, and her rival Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from
Vermont, won in Kansas and Nebraska, in results that did not
substantially change Clinton's big delegate lead.

Mainstream Republicans have blanched at Trump's calls to
build a wall on the border with Mexico, round up and deport 11
million undocumented immigrants and temporarily bar all Muslims
from entering the United States.

But the party's establishment has not been much happier with
Cruz, who has alienated many party leaders in Washington.

"It looks like it will be the angry Trump voters against the
purist conservative Cruz voters," said Washington-based
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "The establishment is just
being left out."

A spokesman for Rubio, who spent the past week launching
harsh personal attacks on Trump, said the senator would push on
with an eye on the March 15 contest in Florida.

"After we win the Florida primary, the map, the momentum and
the money is going to be on our side," spokesman Alex Conant
said in a statement.

Cruz, a first-term U.S. senator from Texas who has promoted
himself as more of a true conservative than Trump, said the
results showed he was gaining momentum in the race to catch the
real estate mogul.

Cruz, 45, has run as an outsider bent on shaking up the
Republican establishment in Washington. A favorite of
evangelicals, he has called for the United States to "carpet
bomb" the Islamic State militant group and has pledged to
eliminate the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service and four
cabinet agencies and to enact a balanced budget amendment.

"A HOWL FROM WASHINGTON"

"The scream you hear, the howl that comes from Washington,
D.C., is utter terror at what 'We the People' are doing
together," Cruz told supporters in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after
his early win in Kansas.

"What we're seeing is the public coming together,
libertarians coming together, men and women who love the
Constitution coming together and uniting and standing as one
behind this campaign," Cruz said.

Trump, 69, has a substantial lead in the delegates needed to
secure the nomination at the Republican National Convention, but
since winning seven of the 11 contests on Super Tuesday he has
come under withering fire from a Republican establishment
worried he will lead the party to defeat in November's election.

But endorsements from establishment Republicans have failed
to sway voters. Rubio won the backing of Kansas Governor Sam
Brownback but still came in third there.

The four Republican contests on Saturday together accounted
for just 155 delegates. Cruz won 64 delegates on Saturday, while
Trump took 49.

The races on Saturday were open only to registered
Republicans, excluding the independent and disaffected
Democratic voters who have helped Trump's surge to the lead.

The anti-Trump forces have a short window to stop the
caustic businessman, who ahead of Saturday had accumulated 319
of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination at July's
Republican national convention, outpacing Cruz, who had 226
delegates.

On March 15, the delegate-rich states of Florida, Illinois,
Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina will vote. Both Florida and
Ohio use the winner-take-all method to allocate Republican
delegates, making the stakes in those states particularly high.
All of the Republican contests on Saturday, and through March
14, award delegates proportionate to the popular vote, although
some states set minimum thresholds to qualify for any delegates.

If Trump takes both Florida and Ohio he would be nearly
impossible to stop. There are a total of 358 delegates at stake
in the five states voting March 15, including 99 in Florida and
66 in Ohio.

On the Democratic side, Clinton has opened up a big delegate
lead and Sanders might have a tough time making up the
difference. All states in the Democratic race award their
delegates proportionally, meaning Clinton can keep piling up
delegates even in states she loses.

The three states holding Democratic contests on Saturday had
a total of 109 delegates at stake. The early estimates were that
Clinton, who appeared headed to a smashing nearly 50-point win
in Louisiana, had won at least 48 delegates on Tuesday and
Sanders 37.

But Sanders made it clear he was not planning to end his
White House quest anytime soon.

"We have the momentum. We have a path toward victory. Our
campaign is just getting started," he said in a statement after
his wins on Saturday.